


Wanna dance?

by meridalocksley



Series: Darillium [2]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Darillium, F/M, dance, river - Freeform, twelve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 19:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5978122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridalocksley/pseuds/meridalocksley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was a prompt I got on tumblr: 12/River - “Wanna dance?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wanna dance?

They were walking down the stairs from the balcony. It led to a spacious hall where classical music was playing, various fancy evening dresses blurred together into colorful stains as couples were dancng in the middle of it. River’s gaze lingered on them for a moment.

“Wanna dance?” the Doctor asked when he felt her hand slipping out of his hold and noticed that she wasn’t keeping pace with him.

River hesitated. “Do you?” she turned towards him. “Are you still the dancing type?”

“Maybe.” he shrugged and stepped closer to her holding out his hand. “No, wait…” he suddenly took a step back just when River was about to place her hand in his. She raised an eyebrow. “Not the Waltz.” the Doctor said looking at the pairs with narrowed eyes.

“You still excel at ruining the moment, don’t you?” River sighed.

“Come!” he dragged her after him hurrying through a corridor. More halls opened from it, all of them crowded with people, either sitting by tables, eating, drinkng, chatting, dancing to different melodies.

He stopped before one where a familiar tune was playing and he led her in while  Patrick Swayze launched into the second line of _She’s Like The Wind_.

“This is more like it.” he smiled and put his hands around River’s waist pulling her closer to him, looking for her glance in the ambience lighting.

“Doctor?” River blinked at him, slightly puzzled. Instead of answering he buried his face into her now released curls, breathing a kiss on her neck, and River, still pleasantly surprised by his sudden and total disregard of personal space, put her arms around his shoulders and gave in to the swinging steps he started to take.

“So you are into blues now.” she said after a while. “I thought the serious face would like the good old Viennese Waltz.”

“Don’t you think we took plenty of careful steps, keeping the disance?” he asked wearily. “Whirling, but always thinking about the next step?”

“Do you think it could ever go differently?” River bit her lip and and pulled a bit away to look at him. “Us not whirling? Not having to think about the next step?” she asked searching his face.

The Doctor looked at her. There was something in his eyes River didn’t exactly know what to make out of. A kind of sadness or some kind of blunt ire, maybe guilt. It has been there since they met at the restaurant. She wasn’t sure whether it was just the personality of this new version of him or it was something else. She had yet to figure him out. He was the same, but his edges were different. He was more serious, a bit less awkward, more straightforward - for instance the way he went for kissing her back on the balcony was new -, and for some reason, he was a lot more possesive.

“People always tend to think about the next step.” he said neutrally.

“You know that that’s not what I meant.” River said with a faint smile. "Can _we_ stop doing that?"

The Doctor remained silent for a while. “Yes.” he then said with a still unreadable expression and pulled her back to him.

“Rule one?” River asked with feigned absent-mindedness as she layed her chin back on his shoulder. She knew when he was lying.

The Doctor swallowed, and closed his eyes, resting his hand on the back of her head. What could he answer to that?

“There is and old one, you know…” he said after a short hesitation.

“What?” River laughed. “Don’t wander off?” she asked with a mocking smirk.

“Exactly.” he agreed, his face still buried in her shoulder, his arms holding her tight as they were slowly swinging. “Don’t go wandering off… Just stay with me.” he said almost imploring.

River knew that he was twisting his answer to dissemble the lie in his previous one, even if he meant it. But she didn’t blame him. This was their life. Spinning around each other, knowing too much, telling white lies to keep each other safe. And at this point she was sure that he knew more than her.

The music stopped, another, more dynamic tune started and they were still just standing there, holding each other in the flickering light.

“Okay?” he whispered into her ear and placed a soft kiss on her jaw line as he moved a bit away from her to look into her eyes, still holding onto her arms. And in that moment River had the strange feeling that the Doctor was not simply possessive, he was dreading to let go of her.

“Okay.” she said looking back at him.

“Then I guess you wouldn’t mind some more dancing.” he suggested and took some steps backwards with a grin, pulling her with him to the center of the hall where more people were dancing to the up-beat music. “Who knows, we can do the Waltz too later. It’s not about the next step after all. It’s about taking this one together.”

They stepped on each others toes a couple of times, and sometimes they totally forgot about the music. But this was their dance. And for the first time, even if just for a while, they were moving in the same direction.


End file.
